Three months after the Congress put up an impressive show in the Assembly election, winning 18 of the 25 seats it contested, internal dissent is back in the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee.
According to an All-India Congress Committee (AICC) member, a contingent from the TNCC met Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, urging him to effect changes in the Tamil Nadu unit.
“They raised the issue of ticket distribution, especially related to the sons of senior leaders being favoured over younger aspirants. There may be some developments in the next couple of weeks,” said the AICC member.
While the TNCC improved its strike rate both in the last Parliamentary and Assembly polls under K.S. Alagiri's leadership, a section of the party unit is unhappy with him after tickets were given to the kin of leaders.
During ticket distribution, Lok Sabha MPs S. Jothimani and Vishnu Prasad and a few others had raised serious objections. Mr. Prasad even held protests in the TNCC headquarters, Sathyamurthy Bhavan.
A section of the leaders is seeking to rake this up now to demand a change in leadership at the State level.
A senior member of the AICC, however, said there was nothing that warranted a change in the State leadership at the moment. “They have just won under Mr. Alagiri’s leadership. There are, however, some factions that want a change... it will not go far. There is nothing on the horizon at the moment,” the leader said.
A senior TNCC leader dismissed talk of change and said plans were afoot for the next six to 12 months with Mr. Alagiri as the president.
‘Just rumours’
“We did very well in the Assembly election. These are all just rumours started by ‘dotcoms’ that want to create something out of thin air,” he said.
However, many in the TNCC admit that the party leadership in New Delhi is unhappy with several party tickets being given to sons of prominent leaders in Tamil Nadu.
